I vahnt to suck your blood! Or at least get you to pay for a large sized order of fries for 50 cents more.

The tempting beast that is upselling – a sales technique used to lure customers into purchasing a more expensive item or an upgrade – has been around for eons. In fact, there are whole businesses created around the concept.

Fast food restaurants are notorious for offering a larger sized item for a nominal fee. A national shoe store chain offers buy-one-get-one deals frequently in hopes its shoppers will purchase more shoes. Cable companies are well known for offering their customers amazing deals on premium movie network or sports packages; the idea is the customer will get hooked to the new channels and continue to pay for them when the offer is over.

Obviously, the upsell technique can be remarkably effective; it can be a value add for your customers when used correctly. The quandary is that many companies abuse upselling by using it too frequently or being overly aggressive.

If you want to incorporate upselling into your business model, it would do you some good to learn what could possibly make you or your sales team come across as a greedy vampires out for blood. Here are some things to avoid when offering an upsell.

Take a look around your business. See those folks answering your customers’ calls and solving their problems? Those people are the heroes of your business – the ones who keep your customers happy and help them when issues arise. We have to ask: What have you done for your customer service representatives lately? If your answer was, “nothing,” then it’s time to shine a spotlight on them and show your appreciation.

It’s Customer Service Week! Any good business celebrates its customers every day, but this week is all about those hard working, patient, extremely helpful and kind representatives taking care of your greatest asset. Celebrating your staff is an easy way to build morale, strengthen their connection with your business and reduce turnover. It also creates happier customers.

We love customer service tools and softwares at PATLive. They make our jobs easier and help our customers get the best possible service we can provide.

You can only get so far with your customers with nothing but a telephone and your sparkling personality at your disposal. As our world becomes more mobile, it’s imperative to be where your customers are and make it easy for them to reach you.

Here are 5 of the greatest customer service tools you should be using.

It takes a special type of person to offer exceptional customer service. At PATLive, taking care of our customers and callers is our number one priority. Not only do we want to give our customers top notch service, but we are trusted to provide that amazing customer service for other companies with our live answer services.

Our agents constantly maintain a positive disposition regardless of the challenges that sometimes arise as a customer service representative. Since we know this job can’t be done by just anyone, PATLive likes to recognize agents on a monthly basis through our Star of the Month Program. We nominate agents who consistently go above and beyond to service our customers. This month, our Star is Kenniese Franklin. We interviewed Kenniese to try and get the answers to that burning question: what makes someone a great customer service rep?

I am an avid watcher of Real Housewives of New York. My favorite person of the show: The Countess LuAnn de Lesseps. She’s snooty, always dressed impeccably and has the most enviable collection of giant statement necklaces ever.

She’s also an authority on etiquette; de Lesseps even has a song about etiquette that is awash with vocoder to disguise the fact that she’s clearly not a singer. Minus the heavy vocoder, the chorus is no less true: “Money can’t buy you class, etiquette is learned, my friend.”

It’s important for businesses to make a good impression on the phone. You don’t need to have a ton of wealth and a Countess title to make it happen either. You just have to be willing to treat others exceptionally well.
Here are some basic phone etiquette skills anyone should have. The Countess would approve.

The dreaded internet troll is the bane of the social media marketing and customer service world.

What is an internet troll, you ask? Trolls are people who take pleasure in causing trouble and commotion within online communities, whether that be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit or any other online forum. They are typically negative and destructive. They also cause the community to go absolutely bonkers. It is especially tricky to deal with these trolls in customer service.

They can also be detrimental to social customer service efforts. If your business is on social media or other online forums, you need to arm yourself with a troll antidote. Here are some tips for dealing with those trolls once and for all.

Are you having a hard time getting new customers? Small businesses can find it difficult to generate new, qualified leads when business is slow. Here are some no-nonsense ideas for bringing all the leads to the yard.

Startups are buzzing and busy. So much work is going into getting them off the ground, and sometimes customer service gets lost in the shuffle. Regardless of whether your startup is an app, software, or service, it’s imperative to have dedicated customer service staff in place.

Here are 3 ways a dedicated customer service staff can help your startup to achieve rapid growth:

I adore the marketing world and love living in the content and social media sector which I inhabit. SEO, analytics, impressions, reach, and click-through rates are not dirty words to me, but rather the empirical proof that your efforts are working (or not working). While it’s a little funny for me to call anything the ‘new’ marketing, I do get how customer service has become just as important as marketing when taking a look at revenue and goals.

The combination of social media and online peer reviews has put a lot of power back into the customers’ hands. They no longer have to sit and simply take in your chosen messages. These days consumers are doing thorough research to find out everything they can before they make a purchase. For example, 93% of shoppers’ buying decisions are influenced by social media– because 90% trust peer recommendations. But only 14% trust advertisements (#Socialnomics 2014). This establishes customer service as the new marketing – or at least big player.

Word of mouth, social media and peer reviews are more popular than relying on the company’s word. Too many people have been burned by bad marketing – companies not living up to their word about their product or not providing adequate support.

Here are some ways to establish word of mouth for your company that are both genuine and positive: